[Lindsay 1] Stormqueen! by Marion Zimmer Bradley

So my initial plan was to not participate in this blog again this year, since I achieved the 52 books goal of last year and wasn't sure I wanted to bother trying again. I started my own blog just to track what I'm reading, but that's getting lonely, so I'm gonna just post on both for a while.

My first finished book of the year is actually a re-read. I think I was in high school when I first read this book, but hadn't picked it up since. Marion Zimmer Bradley is by far one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy authors, and this book, the second (chronologically) in her Darkover series, is definitely one of her better works. It and the others in the series take place on the planet Darkover, which was settled by Earthlings 1,000 years prior to the events of this story (but in the future from now) after their spaceship crashed and they were stranded there. (This story is told in Darkover Landfall.) Most people on the planet have some sort of psychic power, whether it's telepathy, the ability to see the future, power to read/control the weather, etc., and different family lines have their particular powers. Society is based around the feudal system.

Stormqueen! focuses on Dorilys Aldaran, an eleven-year-old girl who has a dangerous form of laran (psychic power) in which she causes violent storms and can kill others during periods of emotional stress. It takes place during the Ages of Chaos, when marriages were arranged for the sole purpose of breeding very specific types of laran and forming alliances and power shifts between families. Dorilys' unfortunate power is a result of this purposeful breeding, and it's possible that she won't survive to adulthood because of it.

The other important characters are Donal, Dorilys' half-brother; Renata, the woman who takes charge of Dorilys to help her control her laran; Allart Hastur, a former monk who is forced to leave the monstary in order to fulfill his obligations to his family; Cassandra, the woman who Allart is forced to marry against his will; and Dom-Rafael, Allart's older brother who poses a threat not only to Allart's happiness, but also to the well-being of the entire planet. All the different character threads intertwine with one another, and it makes for a really well-rounded and fascinating story. Some of the main themes and motifs that come up throughout the book are gender roles, family vs. self, power struggles (between individuals and families), and love in its various forms.

My main problem with MZB is that her writing is sometimes very repetitive, and all her characters have pretty much the same exact voice. Despite these minor drawbacks, the detail and scope of the world she created in Darkover is plenty to keep me reading, and I hope that this and the other Darkover novels remain favorites of mine for years to come.